-The Telegraph In government report cards on babus, “adequate” will now mean “inadequate” and “satisfactory” signify “unsatisfactory”. No, India’s government isn’t turning into a doublespeak-driven Orwellian Big Brother; nor is it taking lessons in obfuscation from Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister fame. What it has done, for the first time, is to define “non-performance” on the part of senior bureaucrats, nudging states to prematurely retire those whose annual reports routinely judge their...

-The Hindu An R.K. Laxman drawing, perceived as showing students in Tamil Nadu agitating against Hindi in 1965 in a poor light, is one of the 10 cartoons recommended for removal from NCERT textbooks by a committee. The cartoon on the anti-Hindi agitation, published in the Class XII Political Science book, angered political parties in Tamil Nadu, with the DMK demanding its removal. While recommending the removal of some “objectionable” cartoons, the six-member...

-The Telegraph A committee set up to go through cartoons used in NCERT textbooks in the wake of a controversy over one involving B.R. Ambedkar is learnt to have supported their use as learning tools but asked for guidelines to choose the right ones. The six-member panel headed by Sukhadeo Thorat, chairperson of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, yesterday submitted its report to Parvin Sinclair, director of the NCERT. A member...

India is all set to unveil a path-breaking test for diabetes that will save both money and blood. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is almost ready with a new digital finger-pricking blood sugar machine that will not require repeated use of testing strips. Significantly, it will cost less than Rs 2 per blood sample and require 1,000 times lesser blood than what glucose meters use now. Even better, it...

-The Telegraph Nearly three-fourths of India’s land area received poor rainfall during the first four weeks of the monsoon season, and an active monsoon phase is unlikely within the next week, weather scientists said today. The poor rainfall has stirred concern among agro-meteorology scientists, tasked with translating weather information into advisories for farmers throughout the year, as the period for paddy transplantation draws closer. “Rain during July is always crucial, but this year...